1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conveyor and more particularly to a conveyor wherein a large number of rollers are arranged on a conveyance path and the driving force from a drive motor is transmitted to each roller by means of a drive mechanism to cause a simultaneous multi-shaft rotation of the rotors, thereby conveying articles carried on the conveyance path. Such a type of conveyors are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open NOS. 116006/87 and 33820/94.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Heretofore, in such a conveyor as a roller conveyor or the like wherein a large number of rollers are arranged side by side along the upper surface of a conveyance path, a belt mechanism using a round belt or a V belt has been used widely as drive means for rotating the rollers. In this type of a conveyor, an endless belt is stretched between a driving shaft supported along the lower portion of the conveyor and the rollers arranged on the conveyance surface, thereby causing the rollers to rotate simultaneously with rotation of the driving shaft.
In the conveyor wherein the rollers are driven by the use of such belt mechanism as mentioned above, the rotative driving force is transmitted to the rollers by contact of the belt with pulleys of the rollers and driving shaft so that there occur problems such as wear of the belt, rising of dust and generation of contact noise; in addition, frictional resistance is inevitably induced by such contact of the belt with the pulleys.
Further, In the case where a lot of rollers are rotated at a time as mentioned above, some troubled rollers on one shaft may affect the rotation of the other rollers, and sometimes there occurs such an inconvenience as cutting of the belt and stranding.